This time of year drives tens of thousands of people into the mountains of the northeast and other forested areas. Travelers spend a few weekend days seeing the turning of leaves and the seas of reds, oranges and yellows covering the hillsides and mountains.
Typically we associate the cycle of life with the spring season and the rebirth of everything green. Bunnies, flowers and leaf buds are the symbols of nature’s annual re-birth.
But the cycles of life happen at all times throughout nature and in all places – and even in ourselves. We also have all sorts of cycles that we go through, of all lengths and kinds.
A peculiar cycle that we all go through impacts the spine. And particularly those with any history of lower back difficulty. Anyone who has seen someone struggle in the morning with low back pain has observed how they can be so much worse in the morning.
“Just give me an hour or two and I’ll be just fine!”
Until tomorrow morning that is.
It turns out the reason for this phenomena is the cycle of the ‘smaller-than-a-maple-leaf’ intervertebral discs in your spine. The discs in the spine naturally absorb fluid like a sponge, and your activity and upright posture during the day squeezes some of this fluid out. When we lie down for extended periods of sleep, these thirsty little discs soak more fluid back up to keep themselves healthy.
Unfortunately, when the spine isn’t healthy, and the tissue is already stressed and swollen, this makes for an unhappy time in the morning. Increased pain, stiffness and sensitivity is very common. As the excess fluid levels go down to ‘generally inflamed’ from ‘way, way, over-stressed,’ the movement and symptoms get a little bit better too.
Interestingly enough, researchers have found that not excessively bending forward (the position where the low back is weakest) early in the AM is a good strategy for people struggling with their lower spine. They tested this out and found that being cautious with forward bending led these people to be less symptomatic than the group given general exercise recommendations.
So try walking first thing in the morning before anything else if this all sounds very familiar to you or someone you care about. And consider that chiropractic is natural health care that – just like nature – allows for cycles of growth and rejuvenation to alternate with your cycles of stress. Make the call if you or someone you know needs some springtime for those faded leaves in your spine.
1. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 1998 Dec 1;23(23):2601-7. The reduction of chronic nonspecific low back pain through the control of early morning lumbar flexion. A randomized controlled trial. Snook SH, Webster BS, McGorry RW, Fogleman MT, McCann KB.
Your health can protect you from the over-commercialization of the holidays. More and more, we hear about how the holidays have turned into something different than what they used to be. Instead of the “true” meaning of Christmas and other holidays they have become about consumerization. Buying and selling and big online sales, they had taken over the season.
Your health can protect you from the over-commercialization of the holidays. More and more, we hear about how the holidays have turned into something different than what they used to be. Instead of the “true” meaning of Christmas and other holidays they have become about consumerization. Buying and selling and big online sales, they had taken over the season.
Has anyone told you you don’t need permission to be a superhero? Or that you don’t need someone to tell you it’s okay to help other people? There are some amazing stories of people that decided they didn’t want to wait to help the people around them that needed help. These were people that didn’t have advanced degrees or complicated certifications. What they did have was the sense of action and an overwhelming urgency to start making changes in the world around them.
It’s a classic phrase by Rene Descartes – one that is instantly recognizable. And it comes from a totally unrecognizable world – 1637.
Yet it is still true today. Descartes’ attempt to get to the very bedrock of what he was as a human being is worth looking at as we turn over into the new year. Especially as we examine the beginning of something new – a time when discussions turn to the entire idea of new, and what the idea of new creates – the vision of new possibilities.
Anti-aging is a trick. And like all tricks, it’s not real. We all slow down, grow old, and die. But like all tricks, when done well, they are amazing and fun. Here is how the trick of anti-aging can work for you.
Take the aging progression above and expand it all the way. From the time we are very young, we grow, get bigger, stronger, smarter and generally better at everything as we go.
Here is the solution to understanding an ever-more common anxiety-causing malady. And how the key to solving it is getting two things – knowing what it takes to get healthy – and the power of understanding how to choose the quickest line at the grocery store.
